Unconditional Love
by JavaForever
Summary: Companion piece to "That Little Girl". 19 years have passed and Madison is getting married. One-shot. Oh yes, and congrats on your big stepping stone on OLC Reggie! A little present for you...R&R please!


A/N: This is a companion piece to "That Little Girl". Madison is all grown up and getting married! Time sure flies…

Disclaimer: I still don't own. Maybe time flew, but that fact still hasn't changed!

Unconditional Love

He stands there at the back of the aisle. Waiting. Watching. She should be coming out any minute now. He waits for a few more seconds mentally preparing himself for this. There she is now. He can't believe how beautiful she is. He can't believe that he had a big hand in creating the lovely woman that is his daughter. That she was once the little girl that begged him to dance with her in the living room. The same one who was thrilled when she got her toe shoes for ballet class. Who couldn't wait to get her first kiss and then raced to tell her mother about it when it happened. The girl who left to go to the prom five years ago leaving behind her shell-shocked father. He had marveled at how grown up she looked then. At her high school graduation. Now, she is an adult. She is going to get married.

He smiles at her as he takes her arm and starts to slowly escort her down the aisle. He can see her soon-to-be husband waiting. He notices the way his daughter can only look at that man. It is true love, no doubt about that. He remembers only having eyes for his wife on his own wedding day. The selfish part of him longs for his daughter to look at him now though. He just wants to see that look of admiration and love that she has always graced him with. It is that unconditional love that he gets from her. He can do no wrong in her eyes. His wife used to talk about that all the time and he never truly understood it until he had his own daughter. That day, he realized that unconditional love is true love. When you love someone with all your heart you can never stop. Not even once.

They reach the front of the aisle and before she leaves him she turns to him and whispers, "I love you Daddy." He feels tears well up in eyes as she smiles at him and then turns away to her own true love. He gulps and forces himself to sit down. He feels numb. Like it is all a dream. He will wake up and find that he is in bed. His little girl will come running into the room and bounce on the bed to wake him up. No. This is real. This is no dream.

Next to him, his wife smiles through her tears as their daughter commits herself the way she did herself 25 years ago. He can barely hold himself together. It's ridiculous. His wife is supposed to be the super emotional one. He is meant to be strong, but he is fighting an uphill battle trying to force the tears away. Oh yes, there goes one now. It slips down his face quietly and unnoticed. Everyone is too focused on the newlywed couple kissing at the front of the room to notice the over-emotional sap quietly crying in the front row.

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She is in the arms of her new husband. They are hardly dancing. More like swaying. They have a rhythm though. It is a beautiful thing to watch. He has a hard time watching though. It is just one more reminder that his baby is no longer a baby. The song ends and to his surprise they walk off the dance floor. She comes up to him smiling mischievously.

She curtsies deeply. "May I have this dance sir?" She asks teasingly. He laughs and bows slightly to humor her. Taking her hand, he leads her onto the dance floor. He holds her close and she lays her head softly on his shoulder. He kisses the top of her head and feels his eyes well up again.

"Thank you for walking me down the aisle," She says quietly. "I know it isn't your thing."

"I wanted to." He says firmly.

She lifts her head and looks up at him, tears pricking at her own eyes. "I know." She answers.

He knows that when this song is over she will leave his arms. She will go back to her husband and maybe dance with him again. When she leaves that night she will be going home with her husband. Her old room will remain waiting for her whenever she comes back to visit. She will leave him when this song is over. She is not just being pushed out of the nest; she is jumping out headfirst and flying away. She is not his little girl anymore. Her love is someone else's. For now though, he can pretend that she is six and that they are back in the living room. He spins her outward and she gracefully twirls away.


End file.
